Utilities that provide water, gas and sewer services typically maintain large networks of pipes most if not all of which are buried underground. In a similar fashion, electrical utilities and providers of telecommunications services, such as AT&T, maintain vast networks of cables, most of which are also buried underground. Increasing demand requires providers of gas, electric, water and telephone service to continually install new pipes and cables (hereinafter, "utility conveyances") to meet customer needs. Installation of a new buried conveyance, such as a fiber optic cable in the case of a telecommunications service provider, is not a trivial task. First, an engineer must obtain a physical map of the area encompassing the starting point and endpoint for the cable. Thereafter, the engineer must decide on a route, taking into account the availability of existing right-of-ways and the ability to obtain new right-of ways, as necessary. Having selected a potential route, the cable engineer must take into account any obstacles, such as rivers, lakes, and streets, for example, as well as any existing utility conveyances running along the proposed route. Once having selected a proposed, the engineer will actually walk, or otherwise traverse the route as a last check before installation commences.
The process of engineering a route for a buried utility conveyance is very tedious, requiring significant manual effort by the engineer to scrutinize the map in order lay out the proposed route while taking into account various obstacles. Moreover, the accuracy of the proposed route depends in large measure on the accuracy of the physical map used by the engineer to select the route. While great care is taken to accurately map existing obstacles along the proposed right-of-way of a planned cable or pipe, inaccuracies can and do occur, adversely affecting the proposed route.
Thus, there is a need for a technique for facilitating route engineering of a buried underground utility conveyance.